Lawyers Wrapping Up in First Felony Spam Trial

Virginia prosecutors compared a North Carolina man on trial for violating the state's anti-spam law to a modern-day "snake oil salesman" who masked his electronic identity last summer to send tens of thousands of fraudulent e-mail advertisements to America Online subscribers. During closing arguments in what state prosecutors have called the nation's first felony prosecution of spammers, Assistant Attorney General Russell E. McGuire told Loudoun County jurors that Jeremy Jaynes, with the help of two co-defendants, illegally misrepresented the origin of e-mails that peddled software products and low-priced stock pickers.